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An extremely lifelike robot has been built that can mimic human facial expressions.

The robot, named Charles, is part of research to apply human body language to machines to see if people are able to engage with them more.

He works via a system of computer programs and mechanical processors connected to a camera.

This records the face of the human subject and sends the information to a computer, which analyzes the positions of facial features.

This information is then sent back to Charles, who repeats the expression modeled to him within two to three seconds.

Professor Peter Robinson is managing the project and said: “We’ve been interested in seeing if we can give computers the ability to understand social signals, to understand facial expressions, tone of voice, body posture and gesture.

Charles the robot from Cambridge UniversitySWNS.com

“We thought it would also be interesting to see if the computer system, the machine, could actually exhibit those same characteristics and see if people engage with it more because it is showing the sort of responses in its facial expressions that a person would show.”

“So we had Charles made.”

Charles formed part of research being done at the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Cambridge University.

However, despite best efforts to get the robot to smile or frown like a human, Charles does look quite strange in action.

“Charles is remarkably realistic, the prosthetics are very good, but the motors are just not like human muscles,” Robinson said.

SWNS.com

“Our control programs are just not quite fine enough and the monitoring of the human face we’re using at the moment is just not quite good enough and so it looks unnatural.”

“Most people when they see this find it slightly strange, and that’s actually an indication that people are very good at seeing something wrong in somebody else’s facial expression.”

“It could be a sign that they’re ill or something else.”

When Charles is wheeled out for demonstrations and to meet the public, the same question is asked: Are robots going to take over the world?

Professor Peter Robinson with CharlesSWNS.com

Robinson said that “the answer is no. You just pull the plug out.”

“The more interesting question that this work has promoted is the social and theological understanding of robots that people have.”

“Why do, when we talk of robots, always think about things that look like humans, rather than abstract machines and why are they usually malicious?

“That tells us something about people more than it tells us about the technology of the machine.”